LAUGHING GRASS
Tavernier says Gers have been pitch perfect under new gaffer but reckons our game’s surfaces are bit of a joke
JAMES TAVERNIER reckons there is no excuse for Scotland’s sub-standard playing surfaces.
But the Rangers skipper insists it’s only right problematic pitches are taken into consideration before judgment is passed on his side’s progress under Michael Beale.
The new gaffer likened the McDiarmid Park turf to a cowfield after his team registered a ninth game without defeat since his appointment on Saturday.
And Tavernier said: “You look at Ross County and Motherwell and they’ve always got really good pitches to play on.
“County are a club so far north in a small stadium and they still manage to keep the surface really good.
“There shouldn’t be any excuses. All the pitches should be grass at the end of the day. It’s something that needs to be done to improve the Scottish game so it looks better from the outside.
“But we just need to get on with it and try to play the game the best we can.”
Beale made his cowfield remark at the end of a six-day run where his side had to wade through the Hampden mud to reach the Viaplay Cup Final before avoiding a potential slip-up on the Rugby Park plastic in midweek.
Borna Barisic’s winner in Perth was good enough to seal a place in the last 16 of the Scottish Cup but it was yet another turgid display fans wanted to chew over after the final whistle.
Beale was able to milk every last drop out of this squad when in Glasgow previously under Steven Gerrard.
But the herd mentality among the Ibrox faithful these days seems to have reached a consensus that performances so far are bearing more of a resemblance to a trundling tractor than a well-oiled machine.
The addition of new faces and the return of old ones from injury will no doubt see Gers pick up the pace. But Tavernier insists the sapping effects this week’s pitches had on his team’s performance levels should not be discounted.
He added: “You saw the pitch, it was obviously tough to play on.
“We got our goal at the right time, just before half-time, and it was a matter of keeping their chances to a minimum, seeing out the game and seeing if we could create more chances.
“We created two big chances and their keeper made important saves. You have to try to play on the pitch and assess the situation the best you can.
“You don’t want to be playing square balls that can be cut out and you have to be careful with back passes.
“But we’re professional and used to it. We’re just happy that we got through to the next round.
“I expected the pitch to be poor because earlier in the season we played on it and it wasn’t the greatest. I expected it to cut up really badly, which it did.
“We can’t use that as an excuse. We just need to be happy that we
There shouldn’t be any excuses. It’s something that needs to be done to improve the Scottish game TAVERNIER
got the goal and the clean sheet. It’s been a tough week.
“To go to extra-time at Hampden then play on astroturf and here and to see the wins out and get the wins we need is really important. It’s character building and we’ve seen good mentality from the squad.
“We’re creating momentum, we need to have it and we need to sustain it now.”
It might not have been slick but Rangers have been successful so far under their new boss, with eight wins and a draw recorded from his first nine games.
Tavernier, whose side face Callum Davidson’s Saints side again next Saturday in a Premiership clash at Ibrox, added: “You have to find different ways to win games and we’re showing different ways of winning them – which is really important.
“If we want to be successful going forward we need to keep it going.
“You try to do that the best you can. This week has been a hard one with the three pitches we played on.
“It feels like ages since we played at Ibrox, so we will try to play our style back at home next week and try to give the fans a real good show.
“We have really taken the manager’s message on well.
“It’s about continuing to learn and progressing the team.
“The more weeks go past the better we will get. We now have a week to get ready for
St Johnstone at home which will give us a chance to get people familiarised with the way we want to play. Playing on a good surface helps and hopefully we are going to get better and better.”
Beale hopes he’ll have a couple of new signings on board by the time he welcomes Saints back to Glasgow as moves for Todd Cantwell, Morgan Whittaker and Nicolas Raskin inch closer. And Tavernier is excited by the prospect of new arrivals. He said: “You always want to try to keep it fresh and keep competition levels really high. “If you want to move forward as a club, that’s what you have to do.
“You need to freshen it up and keep rotating the squad, so we have to get the best players we can and keep pushing the squad.
“If we’re going to add more players to the squad it’s going to make us stronger. Going forward it will make us better.”